From watching this movie I noticed that the while "picture bride" concept was one with the first generation immigrants. Compared differently from Cup of Tea where the boy would go back home in order to pick his bride. Through both of these films their families had a very large impact on the choice of marriage.
Picture brides were very common in the early 1900s, in Takaki it states "some 20,000 picture brides including my aunts Yukino Takaki and Mitsue Takaki, had already arrived here." (Takaki 47) As we saw, the female didn't have much of a choice in the marriage and also on page 47 in Takaki he talks about how "marriage in Japanese society was not an individual matter but rather a family concern, and parents utilized go-betweeens to help them select partners for their sons and daughters. She was sent to america and was very unhappy. According to this film it seemed to be a very common thing for the females to be unhappy. There was a specific scene where Riyo is laying in a field with her friend who is also complaining about her relationship and how mean her husband is.